Completion rate

Our definition of Completion Rate: 

Completion rate refers to the percentage of people who complete a market research survey or questionnaire.  Factors influencing completion rate, which generally ranges between 20% and 90%, include:

• Accuracy of sample: Conducting the survey will be more successful with questions that are relevant to the sample group involved. For example, a survey or questionnaire about end-of-life care may have a higher completion rate when conducted in a nursing home as opposed to a grade school. Structuring the research for a higher accuracy of sample makes it more likely that the survey or questionnaire will be successfully completed.
• Study incidence: The completion rate of a survey or questionnaire will be higher if it is looking for information from products or services used by a large percentage of the population. Similarly, excluding a large number of people from the study for various reasons will decrease the completion rate. This becomes challenging when looking for information from a specific niche that does not make up a large percentage of the population as a whole.
• Length of the survey or questionnaire: Longer surveys or questionnaires are generally less likely to have a high completion rate. This is problematic because shorter sets of questions are less likely to provide useful information unless they are phrased very carefully. It is important to strike the right balance between informative and exhaustive when setting the length of the survey or questionnaire.
• Length of the screener: Like the length of the survey or questionnaire itself, a screener that is too exhaustive in defining the characteristics of the preferred respondents may reduce the completion rate. This may also have a relationship to the accuracy of sample because a shorter screener, while increasing the possibility of successful completions, may reduce the accuracy of sample.
• Cooperation rate: Although the preceding factors can all be modified to positively or negatively affect the completion rate, the cooperation rate is the most difficult to influence. Surveys or questionnaires conducted in areas or among populations with a naturally low cooperation rate will see a low completion rate, with the opposite result for populations and areas with a higher cooperation rate.